MDN came across this handy map from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) showing the shale plays across all of the 48 lower U.S. states. Print it out and keep it handy for when you read the news, which each day seems to bring a new story about shale gas drilling and hydraulic fracturing. This map will be your guide to where the news is happening.
You certainly can’t miss the news in the mainstream media that Chesapeake Energy has appointed five new board members and has “stripped” CEO Aubrey McClendon of his chairmanship (“stripped” even though weeks ago McClendon announced he would voluntarily step down from the role of chairman when a new chairman was found, such are the vagaries of headline writers).
The new incoming board members include…
Read More “Chesapeake Energy’s Board Changes, Archie Dunham New Chairman”
Gulfport Energy reports it has just completed drilling the two longest horizontal Utica Shale wells—ever. The horizontal portion for one of the wells, located in Harrison County, Ohio, went over 1.5 miles.
Here’s the particulars:
Read More “Gulfport Drills Longest Horizontal Utica Wells to Date”
Why are natural gas prices at historically low prices? According to gas pricing experts, you can sum it up in a single word: Marcellus.
Read More “What’s the Reason Natural Gas Prices are So Low?”
Sand is a key ingredient in the hydraulic fracturing process. A special kind of sand, referred to as crystalline sand, is injected into cracks made during fracturing and stays in the cracks, propping them open so the gas can continue to come out (which is why it’s called a “proppant”). More sand will be on the way to the Marcellus and Utica region due to a new agreement between U.S. Silica, the nation’s second-largest sand producer, and Canadian Pacific Railway (CP). CP will be the exclusive rail shipper for U.S. Silica’s new frack sand facility being constructed in Wisconsin.
From the CP press release announcing the exclusive deal with U.S. Silica:
Read More “New Deal Brings Midwest Sand to Marcellus/Other Shale Areas”
A CNBC “special report” asks the question: Who’s Winning the Natural Gas Game? The special report is actually a series of articles they’ve posted looking at various aspects of natural gas, including the controversy over the hydraulic fracturing of shale gas.
Part of the special report includes a poll. The poll itself, although an unscientific sample, illustrates the ongoing split in opinion of the general population on the issue of fracking. The poll asks, “Is Shale-Gas Fracking Environmentally Safe?” Here’s the results as of this morning when MDN voted:
Read More “CNBC Special Report on Natural Gas and Shale Fracking”
The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading:
Read More “Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Fri, Jun 22, 2012”
Sadly, we have to add the National Wildlife Federation to the list of rabid anti-drilling groups. In fact, a check of the NWF website shows they’ve drunken so deeply from the anti-everything pool they’re beyond redemption. The latest “wild” charge they’re making (pun intended) is that natural gas drilling, specifically fracking in Ohio and Michigan, will use excessive amounts of water from the Great Lakes and is an imminent danger to people and animals.
Read More “Wildlife Federation Sounds Alarm on Fracking in OH, MI”
Columbiana County, OH has just signed a deal with DPS Penn (an agent for Chesapeake Energy) to lease 548 acres for Utica Shale drilling. And they astutely doubled their money from the original offer from DPS a year ago. The new terms of the deal, just signed, are for $5,850 per acre and a 20 percent royalty. Columbiana also negotiated the lease term down to three years. A typical lease is five years.
The deal makes Columbiana breaks the record as the highest signing bonus granted to any government body for a Utica (or Marcellus) Shale lease deal.
Read More “Columbiana County Lease with Chesapeake, Highest Bonus Ever”
A number of New York State local government officials gathered in Albany on Monday, June 18 to talk about and support a new initiative to grant local municipalities the legal right to control oil and gas drilling in their borders. The concept is referred to as “home rule” and it’s gathering momentum with both Democrats and even with some Republican state legislators.
The event was sponsored by a group of anti-drilling groups, including Sustainable Otsego, Catskill Citizens for Safe Energy, and Otsego 2000. The anti-drilling group Shaleshock was also present and videoed the speakers. They offer the video on their website (click the link below to view it).
This was the press release about the home rule gathering:
Read More “Local Politicians Gather in Albany, NY to Support “Home Rule””
The Coshocton County, Ohio unemployment rate has been stubbornly high, but now it’s starting to move lower. In May of this year the unemployment rate for Coshocton stood at 9.3 percent. It was 10.2 percent in April, one month earlier. And if you go back a year to May 2011, it was 11.3 percent. In fact, the current 9.3 percent rate is the lowest rate seen in Coshocton County since 2008.
What’s caused the Coshocton unemployment rate to go 2 percent lower in just one year? Yep, much of it can be credited to Utica Shale drilling.
Read More “Utica Shale Drilling Causes Unemployment Drop in Eastern OH”
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett continues to push hard to get his package of tax incentives for a Shell ethane cracker plant passed before the state legislature goes on summer break at the end of June. Looks like it’s paid off. Word has come out the legislature will pass his proposed package.
Read More “PA Gov. Corbett Press Conference on Shell Cracker Plant”
Bregal Energy announced yesterday they have increased their investment in Inflection Energy. Inflection was founded in 2008 as a drilling company focused on the Marcellus Shale. They hold leases in both Pennsylvania and New York. Bregal is an investment company focused on the energy industry. The amount of the new investment and the terms of the deal were not disclosed in the press announcement.
Read More “Bregal Invests Undisclosed Amount in Inflection Energy”
Josh Fox, a talented movie-maker and master purveyor of half-truths and outright lies in the mostly fictional movie Gasland, has just released a new short “documentary” called The Sky is Pink aimed squarely and solely at New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. It seems the anti-drilling movement is desperate to prevent any kind of high volume hydraulic fracturing from getting a fair evaluation in New York State—so they’re pulling out all the stops to try and make sure it doesn’t.
Read More “Josh Fox Releases Short Movie Targeting Gov. Andrew Cuomo”
Norwegian company Statoil continues to change its focus away from the Marcellus Shale region and instead concentrate on “oily” shale areas of the country, like the Bakken Shale in North Dakota. Why? Natural gas prices continue to bump around at historically low prices, making it a challenge to be profitable.
Statoil has cut the number of drilling rigs in the Marcellus nearly in half from one year ago and the wells they’re drilling now are simply to hold acreage. That is, they drill on acreage for which leases are about to expire to hold that acreage.
According to Bill Maloney, president of Statoil North America:
Read More “Statoil Shifts it Focus from Marcellus to Bakken”
The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading:
Read More “Marcellus & Utica Shale Story Links: Thu, Jun 21, 2012”